Agile software development is exciting, but what happens when your team is entrenched in older methodologies? Even with support from the organization, it is challenging to lead an organization through the transformation. As you start making smaller, more frequent releases, your manual test cases may not keep up, and your automated tests may not yet be robust enough to fill the gap. Add in the reality of shrinking testing resources, and it is obvious that change is required. But how and what should you change? Learn how Ron Smith and his team tackled these challenges by moving from a test case-driven approach to predominantly session-based exploratory testing, supported by “just enough” documentation. Discover how this resulted in testers who are more engaged, developers who increased their ability and willingness to test, and managers who increased their understanding and insight into the product. Use what you learn from Ron to begin the transformation in your organization.

A senior quality engineer at Intuit for fifteen years, Ron Smith enjoys being the first one to test a new product or feature, learning how it works, and finding creative ways to test it. Ron’s other passions in testing include creating automated tests, building testability into the product, and improving the user experience. He strongly believes that critical thinking and understanding how users will interact with the product are key components of effective testing.